I’ve heard many parents lament that Chinese goes down the drain once kids enter elementary school. Even with all this forewarning, I never thought things would change so soon and so swiftly. I guess in my mind I had pictured it occurring sometime in middle or high school.

Last year, i.e. kindergarten year, everything was fine and proceeded pretty much just like preschool.

Enter first grade. ACK!!!

It’s not that my son doesn’t like Chinese because he likes it very much and speaks and reads Chinese books every day. What changed is…

Maturity

Somewhere along 6 and 7 years old, suddenly I was no longer needed. Play dates and birthday parties became drop-offs and my role these days is being his chauffeur. How did it go from attached-to-me-at-the-hip to this in the blink of an eye?

Time

The other thing about growing up is, burgeoning interests and hobbies. And if this new hobby takes up 20 hours per week?? Time that was previously dedicated to Chinese? The truth is that we have had to drop some Chinese commitments because there are only so many hours in a day.

Doing Chinese homework while waiting

Academics

Nobody cared much about academics in kindergarten but in first grade, suddenly the sh*t got real. This year I started feeling like scores and grades are serious and impact whether or not your child gets selected for opportunities.

Parental Questions 🤯🤯🤯: What are you willing to give up in the pursuit of Chinese? Should you turn down play dates and spend those hours at home learning? And if so what is the impact on your child socially and will he/she resent you for it?

Should you not spend any time on English and focus resolutely on Chinese, thereby missing out on competitions in elementary school? Do these even have any long term benefit or impact?

Reading Update

The bright side is thank goodness he developed habits to speak and read Chinese fluently before age 7 and these have been maintained.

Reading wise, he has finally moved on from reading Zorori 怪杰佐罗力 after reading each book repeatedly for the last six months! If there are other parents with kids “stuck” on a certain book, be patient and they will grow out of it on their own.

These days I have noticed that Little Man can read Traditional and Simplified with or without phonetic assistance. The transition to no phonetics happened naturally on its own, starting with reading comics and then moving on to more wordy stuff. If you ask me, all that re-reading of Zorori helped a lot with his fluency and word recognition. I have no other way of explaining how he can read Traditional fluently without ever being taught how to read Traditional characters.

Pleasantly surprised he could read non-zhuyin passage

The other series he LOVES and has been repeat reading is Ne Zha 哪吒 and Ma Zu 妈祖 as shown below. He asked for longer versions of these two stories so I have been on the lookout. He also enjoys PvZ and Mi Xiao Quan idiom comics, first with me reading them to him then reading them himself.

Spanish Update

Some readers asked me how I support my son’s Spanish when I don’t speak the language. The short answer is: I don’t. All I do is send him to a Spanish immersion school and pay for his online tutoring 1-2x per week.

He is reportedly “exceeding expectations” in Spanish and his school does a great job individualizing and giving him support to meet his needs.

Don’t hesitate to advocate for your child with the school. I send occasional emails to teachers to check in or advocate for XYZ and it’s made a world of difference. If something is not working for your child, speak up and fix it.

Final Thoughts

Long story short, Chinese is still going well but I have noticed a huge shift in my priorities this year. I no longer spend all my time researching, buying, blogging, teaching Chinese… how weird is that?

I am afraid of what it’ll look like a year from now when I post Second Grade Updates!

Like this:

We’ve been using Ximalaya to listen to audiobooks for a couple years now and I can’t believe I just realized today that there’s a kids version! 🤦‍♀️

It is much preferable to the adults version I previously used. It’s simple, user-friendly, and when you enter your child’s age, it populates recommendations. Most importantly, you can let your child scroll through without worrying they’ll click on some inappropriate junk!

It’s also easy to narrow down to your interests by clicking on the icons: Science, Classics, Chinese Literature, Popular, etc.

There’s a lot of audiobooks for free but some are VIP only. VIP subscription is $2.49 per month which I find completely worth it. We have enjoyed many of the VIP audiobooks and find them excellent! My son has listened to all the 米小圈 numerous times – hugely popular series from China.

The other thing I’m excited about is the Learning section of this app, where there’s audio recordings for elementary Chinese textbooks they use in China! There’s even quizzes at the end to see if you retained the info.

(Not sure if we will be using this but still kinda cool)

There’s a lot more resources in the Learning section that I haven’t explored. It included learning plans and lessons for Art and many other topics. 🤯 This might be useful for homeschoolers.

While we’re on the topic, 「親子天下」is another app we sometimes listen to. It is by one of our favorite publishers of children’s books in Taiwan.

The selection of books is smaller than Ximalaya but the quality is excellent as well. It has some audiobooks of the Reading 123 series which is nice to listen first if you’re trying to get your kid to read the books. My son enjoys listening to 「字的童話」which is a series of funny short stories that have word plays and puns.

It is also subscription based but more expensive at $5.99 per month.

The benefit to having both of these is you’re pretty covered for Chinese stories from both China and Taiwan! There are many regional differences in the Mandarin spoken, from pronunciation to vocabulary to culture so I enjoy listening to both.

Like this:

Chinese magazines. They are soooooooo good and have been a lifesaver for me these days since I’ve been quite busy. If you’re a busy/lazy parent, magazines are your friend!

The best thing about Chinese magazines, in my opinion, is that they come with audio read-aloud CDs by native speakers. They are fantastic quality and provide a lot of advanced, non-fiction vocabulary input.

We spend about 2 hours in the car every Saturday commuting to various activities so I just pop a new CD in every week. By my son’s request, we usually listen to each CD at least twice. This is my quick and easy way to learn new words together with my son.

The magazines are themed and the topics change with the season/holidays. For example, since it is now Fall and we have two fruiting apple trees in our yard, it was perfect timing to listen to the Apples issue.

If you’re wondering which magazine would be a good fit for your kids, I compiled a table below to compare them:

Factors to Consider:

Publisher– After buying thousands of Chinese books, I’ve found that I have very strong preference for two publishers which are 康軒 and 親子天下 and I tend to stick with them. Conversely, there are some publishers I stay away from. I won’t mention which ones since I’ll probably really offend some people LOL.

Content – This is probably the most important thing! What are you looking for in a magazine? I prefer a mix of current affairs (e.g. culture, geography, history, news) and science so I can expose my son to a wide range of vocabulary.

CD – All the magazines come with read aloud CDs that are fun and engaging. Far better than my own accented (and possibly erroneous) read aloud.

Activity books – Honestly we don’t usually do these because ain’t got no time for crafts. But I know some kids really love their stickers and crafts.

Sample Pages

小行星幼兒誌 Little Planet Magazine

Image from c-stems.comImage from c-stems.com

I was really surprised by how much my son liked this magazine, I think possibly because he is familiar with 親子天下 books and this magazine by the same publisher has similar illustrations, style and voices. He also really enjoyed the activity book that had a detective theme and you solve the clues to find the culprit.

新小小牛頓 Little Newton Magazine

My first impression of this magazine is that it’s very “old” but again I was very surprised by how much my son likes it and has retained information from it. This is the most “sciency” of the three mags. We also enjoy the CDs very much! I heard the DVDs that come with it are also very good but we have not watched them.

This magazine is no longer in circulation so you can only buy old issues.

康軒學習雜誌 Kang Xuan Top945 Magazine

Image from c-stems.comImage from c-stem.com

This magazine is my personal favorite. My son loves the illustrations and comics but content is sometimes too advanced for him. This is not surprising since it is a 1st to 3rd grade magazine so I feel that it will continue to grow with him. I love the wide range of topics it covers and exposure to culture of different countries, especially Taiwan. When we went to Taiwan this past summer, my son was already very familiar with many Taiwanese foods, landmarks, places of interest, etc. due to reading this magazine.

Like this:

This summer we spent X thousand dollars on a three-week trip to Taiwan and Singapore. The question most people are probably wondering is, was it worth the money and time? Does it make a significant difference in Chinese learning?

Before we left, Little Man (6.5 y.o.) was already speaking Chinese frequently and willingly. Through our efforts the last two years, he also reads Chinese books daily. So I didn’t see any increase in the “quantity” of Chinese.

That’s not to say our trip had no impact on his language learning because it absolutely did! Here’s the “qualitative” changes I noticed:

Vocabulary – Because of all the experiences we had every day, his vocabulary naturally improved. He learned the names of the new foods he tried e.g. 芭樂 (guava) and 百香果 (passion fruit). He loved going to 便利商店 (convenience store) which are everywhere in Taiwan. He got to experience for himself what a 夜市 (night market) is instead of just reading about it in a book. He learned the names of LEGO pieces in Chinese at summer camp. He learned the variations in different countries, e.g. 捷運 in Taiwan is called 地铁 in Singapore.

Complex sentences – Taiwanese speakers use 10x more complex sentences and advanced vocabulary than I am capable of producing so I am really glad he got exposure to that.

Variety – In the US, I am the primary person he speaks Chinese to. However in Asia he got to speak to everyone! He was pretty shy at first but towards the middle of the trip gained confidence in speaking to other people like wait staff, taxi drivers, teachers, and asking them questions. In Singapore, he bonded with my parents who speak Mandarin as their first language.

Ego Boost – Little Man got compliments on his Chinese everywhere he went. Everyone kept telling him how awesome his Chinese is (more due to the fact that they know he’s American than because his Chinese really is awesome). All the praise and attention made him feel really proud.

Literacy – He really got to see how important and useful it is to be able to read Chinese. He was able to read menus, TV subtitles, advertisements, packaging labels, etc. Now he knows why his mom makes him practice reading every day!

FUN – We had soooooooooo much fun. He had the best time and can’t wait to go back! There is no better way to encourage language learning than to have fun doing it.

Here’s an interesting story: We met up with one of my son’s friends (an ABC like him), let’s call him E, when we were in Taipei. In the US, when my son and E play together they speak 100% English because E hardly spoke Chinese.

However, after E went to Taiwan for the summer to stay with grandparents, he made a complete 180 degree switch and only spoke Chinese.

When we met up for a play date in Taipei, my son and E spoke 100% Chinese. It is truly amazing to watch how bilingual those two kids are. Makes me wanna cry actually.

If you’re thinking about a trip to a Chinese-speaking country, GO FOR IT. The experience is truly amazing and life changing. Little Man remembers so much from all his trips to Asia (five times to Singapore and once to Taiwan) and often talks about them. Travel abroad really open up a child’s eyes to the world. 🌎

Side note is my Chinese improved so much from having to email, text, talk in Chinese for weeks. Not going to lie, it was really challenging at first but I did get used to it.

One takeaway from this trip is: the day-to-day home environment is more important to a child’s Chinese proficiency than a short-term trip to Taiwan. No matter what huge gains a child makes in Taiwan, they will lose it rapidly if they go home to a non-supportive environment.

Conversely, if you have a “Chinese Language Ecosystem” (CLE) at home, a trip to Taiwan is great to have but not necessary. Like I said, my son speaks and reads Chinese regardless of whether or not we went on this trip. He just has a richer experience now.

Like this:

Many folks online have shared their experience with taking their kids to Taiwan for full Mandarin immersion. It is a bit trickier for me since I don’t have friends or family there. I’ve been to Taiwan twice before but my last trip there was over ten years ago 😬.

The main reasons for 2019 being the year is because:

Age – Last summer as a 5 year old I only enrolled him in activities and classes and no camps. This year as a 6 year old is the first year I signed him up for camps both within the USA and Taipei. Most summer camps are geared for kids entering 1st grade, for good reason. I have noticed him being much more independent this year. (Of course this is varies with personality, some kids being more plucky than others)

Chinese Proficiency – His Chinese is really much better now than last year. Seeing him play so well with some kids from China a few months ago made me feel assured that he will get along with Chinese-speaking peers. I definitely don’t want him to have no clue what is going on or be unable to express himself.

As I was planning out our trip, it was immensely helpful to me to read other blog reviews so I’m typing out our experience to share as well.

Note that some details will be kept private because I am selfish and don’t want others to ‘steal’ my bookings from me.

When to start planning?

I started loosely planning more than a year prior! Here’s a suggested timeline:

A year before:

Summer Camp

Tip: Make lots of real-life and online Taiwanese friends because they can give you invaluable advice! The kind of advice you can’t get from Google.

Many people post online (e.g. Motherly Notes Facebook group, Summer Taipei Kids) about their experiences so read all the posts the summer prior, e.g. posts from Summer 2019 to help you plan Summer 2020. Think about what are your goals as a parent (“academic” or “play based” camp?) and your child’s interests (sports, cooking, science, crafts, outdoors, etc). Then go to their websites and jot down camp dates/costs for 2019 because it will likely be similar for 2020.

Your summer camp decision is THE MOST IMPORTANT ONE. That’s why I listed it first, because every other decision revolves around it. Obviously you need to make sure your flight dates correspond to camp dates, and ideally book accommodation close by.

Once you have narrowed down your camp(s), follow their Facebook page so you get notified when they begin enrollment, usually around April. REGISTER IMMEDIATELY. This is just like in the US where the popular camps fill quickly. You snooze, you lose.

Taiwan has their summer vacation for the months of July and August. There are some camps in June but not many. If you go during off-peak season it will be cheaper (and not boiling lava hot 🥵) but there will not be camps. Of course you can still do activities, classes, travel, or even enroll your kids in school.

6-8 months before:

Flights

I used Google to monitor the flight prices and found that the cost of flights from our city to Taipei ranged from $800 (non-peak season) to $1300 (peak season).

I started being more serious about the dates and booking flights in January. I booked my flights for around $1000 in end January which is a really decent price for peak-season. Many of my friends who booked in February and beyond ended up paying hundreds more per person. Again, you snooze you lose.

Lodging

If you’re staying for a few weeks or months in Taipei, probably your best option is to book an Airbnb or similar. It is more affordable and spacious than a hotel room.

My main criteria was 1) Walking distance to metro station 🚇 and 2) Walking distance to summer camp. Since we have to drop off and pick up every day, I figured walking would be the most convenient.

I found a place that was 1-min walk from MRT and 5-min walk from camp, and you can bet I jumped on it!

FYI, Airbnb does not disclose their exact address so it takes some detective work to find the precise location you want. I did a search for the MRT station I wanted to be close to, short-listed a few apartments, then PM the hosts to ask how far of walking distance to the camp address. I asked three hosts and I got the answers 9 minutes, 15-20 minutes and 5 minutes. Obviously I chose the one that was 5 minutes away. I liked it the best anyway. 😉

Our apartment is small but has a full-size refrigerator and a washer. I did not care about having a full kitchen since I didn’t think we’d be cooking. I also decided to book with a Superhost (high reviews) since this was our first time with Airbnb and I figured we should play it safe.

Having an apartment right next to the MRTstation was the best idea ever. Find a place right next to an MRT, not a 10-min walk from MRT, because really a 10-min walk with small whiny children feels about an hour long.

If you’re like me and have never used Airbnb before, you can get 15% off your first trip by clicking my referral link: Airbnb discount!

I suggest booking accommodation in a central location in the city. We stayed in Xinyi District and it was great. If you stay in the outskirts it may be cheaper per night but you’ll pay for it in higher transportation costs and inconvenience.

2-4 months before:

Bank Accounts

Do you have a credit card that doesn’t charge foreign transaction fees? If not, apply for one.

Do you have a bank account that you can withdraw money at foreign ATMs? If not, apply for one.

A trusted friend recommended Charles Schwab checking account which enables me to withdraw cash at any ATM anywhere in the world for free. This is stupendously useful because I don’t have to carry large wads of cash while traveling and no money changers needed.

I’ve never tried other banks so I can’t compare but Schwab worked great. I easily withdrew cash from any ATM in Taiwan and Singapore. Note: You will need A HECK LOT OF CASH in Taiwan. Many food places and bookstores do not take electronic payment!

Book List

If you’re the over-planning sort (like me), then you probably want to put together your book list in advance so you know what to buy. That way you’re not in the bookstore overwhelmed by choices. Browse around online and get familiar with the prices to get the best deals.

You can order books online from 博客來 etc. in advance and have them ready for pickup at 7-11 when you arrive. This is a good option if you’re only visiting Taiwan for a few days and don’t have time to shop.

Itinerary Planning

Again, being the over-planner that I am, I put together a draft itinerary of all the fun kid-friendly spots that I thought my child would enjoy. After all, the main reason for this trip is to have lots of Chinese exposure and have a blast so that he wants to keep coming back and keep loving Chinese!

Refer to these posts for some ideas of kid-friendly Taipei activities: Motherly Notes: Visiting Taiwan. I’ll blog our favorite places as well over the next few weeks.

I used Google Maps app to save all the places I wanted to eat and play. This made life much easier as I could visualize and go to places close together on the same day.

As you can see, most activities are located in central Taipei. This is why I recommend finding lodging there because towing kids long distances on public transportation and boiling heat is NO FUN.

1-2 weeks before:

Unlock Cell Phone

Check with your mobile phone provider that your phone is unlocked and can accept a travel SIM card. You need to get a travel SIM card so you can have a Taiwanese phone number for your camp to call you in case of emergencies, make reservations, etc.

I initially thought I could get a pocket WiFi and stick with my US phone number but later realized I really do need a TW number. I got called a lot by everyone from the hotel to taxi driver to confirm bookings. And the SIM card is cheap (this is the one we used) and gives you unlimited data!!!

Download Apps

It’s almost crunch time so it’s time to get serious!! Book your airport ride (Taoyuan International Airport is ~45 mins to the city), tickets to museums, workshops, etc etc.

Kid workshops sell out fast so reserve your spots as soon as you possibly can. Taxis can be booked just 1-2 days before.

I don’t like having too many apps on my phone and always try to streamline things but these were absolutely necessary:

Google Maps – must!!!!

LINE – Taiwanese prefer to communicate by texting using this app. This is how I made appointments with hairdresser, taxi driver, etc. while I was still in the US.

Klook, KKDay, FunNow – to purchase tickets for various activities

Uber, Find Taxi – to book rides

Note:

I think a majority of my readers are in the USA. Keep in mind that traveling halfway around the world to Taiwan to a completely different time zone is very harsh on the body. My husband was extremely sick right after we arrived and spent the first two days incapacitated and throwing up.

We arrived three full days before Little Man’s camp started which I had thought was sufficient to get acclimatized. Nope. He was okay at first but then fell horribly ill on the fourth day. Also, due to the time change he kept waking up in the wee hours of the morning and hence was extremely tired by afternoon. All in all, the first week of camp did not go that smoothly due to illness and fatigue.

For me, I did not fall sick but I did not have an appetite for about a week!

On a similar note, one of my teacher friends who brought a group of 7th and 8th graders to China this summer said it was awful as half the students got so sick they almost had to be hospitalized. So yes, the jet lag does some horrible things to your body even if you’re normally a very healthy person.

(Maybe we will try Melatonin on our next trip to ease the symptoms 🤷‍♀️ )

Ideally, give yourself a full week to get adjusted to Taiwan weather and time zone. I also wished I had left a few days at the end of the trip for some free time. There were several things that Little Man really wanted to do again (e.g. Baby Boss, surfing) that we were sadly not able to as there was not enough time.

Like this:

We are having so much fun in the sun and I have been so lazy to blog. But here I am, finally got off my lazy *** to share some of our favorite 西游記 materials for beginners. These materials are abridged for preschool/early elementary age and are introductory level, so don’t expect it to include all the details. The main purpose is to hook kids’ interest.

I’ll start out by saying that I had no interest in Journey to the West when I was a kid growing up in Singapore. I remember it being on TV and my thoughts were that Monkey King and the Pig looked sooooo fake and dumb. I especially hated how Pig’s ears looked glued on and his big belly and man boobs are so ewwwww.

Anyway, things change when you get older right. Especially after you have kids. It’s like you have to force yourself to do things you hate, and then realize that it’s actually not so bad after all. (Am I the only who feels this way?)

Why Read Journey to The West?

Reason 1: It is one of the four classics of Chinese literature. There are constant references to it in books, songs, tv shows… Last week, I watched a talk show and someone said her husband has “火眼金睛”, a reference to Monkey King. Yesterday, my son was reading a completely unrelated book and he recognized several characters in there like 牛魔王 (Bull Demon King) and 蜘蛛精 (Spider Spirit) from Monkey King. Like I said, it’s everywhere.

Reason 2: It is also a nice stepping stone to other Chinese mythology and legends as it introduces many Chinese “gods” and “goddesses” like Jade Emperor, Guanyin, Erlang Shen, etc. This is also a huge part of Chinese culture.

Reason 3: It’s FUN. Both boys and girls will find this story irresistible. Kids really love knowing about each “god” and their “powers” and “weapons” and who is more powerful and who will defeat who (comparison of “powers” is also why my son loves the 小妖怪 series).

Materials We Used

I’ll share what we used in the chronological order that we acquired them.

#1. 西游立體書 3D Pop-Up Book

This was my son’s very first introduction to at 5 y.o. and I think it was a great choice because he was jaw-droppingly WOWED by the stunning illustrations and pop-ups.

Unfortunately, I found it difficult to read this book since it didn’t have pinyin and I wasn’t familiar with the character names (although I could probably read it now). My son was also afraid of the “spider” page. As a result he only requested me to read only the first two pages of this book over and over. As I later found out, the first two pages tell the story of 大鬧天宮 (Havoc in Heaven) which is sometimes told as a stand-alone story, so I guess it turned out just fine.

Regardless, this book was the beginning of his interest in Journey to the West so it served its purpose. It really is a lovely book.

These videos really helped my son understand the story. Little Fox is made for Chinese language learners so the language is by far the easiest to understand of the whole lot. This is a great introduction for kids.

#3. 西游記 注音版 Chapter Book (pinyin version)

This book comes in Traditional Chinese (buy from 博客來) or Simplified Chinese (buy from Taobao). What I like about it is each chapter is really short, only about 5-6 pages, so it was manageable both as a read-aloud and for kids to read themselves. The pictures are cute and I like them far better than the numerous other versions out there with ugly pictures.

The story is summarized (a bit too summarized in my opinion) into about 120 pages and a lot of details were left out. But, I definitely feel like it was a worthwhile buy since it was only $2 on Taobao. 👌 This was easier for me to read aloud to him since it has pinyin!

#4. 幼福 金鼎獎西游記 You Fu Audio CDs (24 CDs)

This is an award-winning audio narration from Taiwan and highly recommended by many parents. I bought it when my son was ~5.5 and we only listened to a bit before he lost interest. It was probably too long and complicated for him at that time.

However, he suddenly picked it when he was 6.5 years old and this time he loved it and listened to the whole thing (12+ hours) in the car over several weeks. Goes to show that sometimes we just have to be patient and wait for kids to be developmentally ready.

Note that this is not an audio book (where someone is reading out a book), but more like an 廣播劇 audio drama (with a narrator and actors acting out parts). There is a lot of sound effects and clinging and clanging and overall very LOUD. I did not like it at first but got used to it after a while. It has a lot of advanced vocabulary and idioms and we both benefited from listening to it.

#5. Back to #3

Shortly after listening to #4, my son picked up the book (listed in #3) and read it. I was beyond thrilled! I just wanted to point this out because it is evidence that listening leads to reading. Having your kids listen to the audiobook first will build their vocabulary and comprehension enough that they can eventually read the book.

#6.米小圈快乐西游记 Mi Xiao Quan Xi You Ji

Mi Xiao Quan is a hugely popular series in China, the equivalent version of Wimpy Kids. I’ve mentioned numerous times how much my son loves Mi Xiao Quan, starting with the original books and audiobooks, then the other spin-off series like idioms and riddles. I recently realized there’s yet another spin-off series Journey to the West.

Unlike the Diary of Mi Xiao Quan audiobooks which are free, the Journey to the West audio cost about $12 USD. Well worth it in my opinion as it is extremely well produced. In the introduction they stated that the author spent six months writing it and they found the best voices in China to record and the best producers for the music.

I absolutely ❤️ it. I like it even better than #4 You Fu CDs listed above because they do a good job of providing lots of details and descriptions. It also includes interesting snippets from the unabridged 原著 Journey to the West – e.g. asking “Do you know how tall the Monkey King is?” then quoting that it says that he is not taller than 4 feet tall. What a good way to introduce kids to the unabridged version!

It is also more “modern” – it is a recent production so the music and sound effects are toned down, not as “old fashioned” as You Fu CDs which were produced in 2003. Nonetheless I think they both have their merit and I don’t regret buying them both.

And… that’s all I have for right now! I am looking for more intermediate-level books and will update more as we get to that level.

Like this:

It was love at first sight with these comic books when I saw them last Fall on another blog. At that time, we were 100% Simplified but I knew I had to get these even though they are in Traditional Chinese.

Why we love them

#1. KIDS LOVE COMICS!!!! If you want to get your kid interested and excited about Chinese, here’s a tip: comics!

#2. Each book has 30-40 stories of 4 pages each. Each story takes only a few minutes to read so it’s great for when you have just a few minutes to spare or short attention spans.

#3. Stories are easy to understand – kids can also use the picture cues to figure out meanings of new vocabulary.

#4. They are healthy and educational – each book has a different theme such as protecting the earth, how to be a good friend, learning is fun, etc. My son has learned so much vocabulary and general knowledge, e.g. what to do in an earthquake.

#5. MP3 CD!!!! You can listen to the audio without the book because the narrator sets the scene and they have different voices to act it out. It’s amazing quality and really fun to listen to. My son surprises me with the Taiwanese phrases he picked up like “我就說嘛!” and “看我的厲害!” Sooooo funny.

If you have a C-Pen, you can easily transfer the MP3 to make your comic books read aloud. This is particularly awesome for non-Chinese speaking parents {Read more about how we use C-Pen}

#6. Affordable price – these are going for just $7.95 USD each. Considering how he loves it and listens repeatedly, I definitely got my money’s worth!

#7. They are a nice bridge to Kang Xuan Top945 Learning Magazine. Many of you are familiar with Top945 magazine which is one of the top children’s magazines in Taiwan with excellent informative articles. However, kids may find it difficult to read this magazine and/or may not be interested.

For me, I used 紅豆綠豆碰 comic books first to hook my kid’s interest before introducing the more difficult 康軒學習雜誌 Top945 Learning magazines. Because my son was already familiar with the Red Bean, Green Bean characters (same voices for audio CDs as well), he was immediately drawn to the magazines even though it is challenging for him.

Where to Buy

I find all of them to be pretty similar so choose them based on your child’s interest or your own preference, e.g. To focus more on social skills, get the book “交朋友好好玩”. If you want to read more on Chinese New Year, get “沒有紅包的新年”, etc.